Financial Services And Competition Law In The United Kingdom: The Quest For Pro-Competitive Objectives And Suitable Tools

In the United Kingdom, the debate on competition and financial services has focused lately on a fairly esoteric discussion about whether one of the new envisaged regulators, the Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”), should or should not have competition as a “primary objective.” In this article we aim to clarify the terms of this debate. We provide first an overview of past competition enforcement activities in the financial services (I)